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Group Forms to Disseminate Disease Knowledge to Farmers

UK – A stakeholder committee has been launched to educate beef farmers about common ailments affecting cattle.

Through social media and ‘user-friendly’ fact sheets produced by vets, the committee aims to reach ‘as wide an audience as possible’.

This is according to campaign organisers the National Beef Association (NBA) which is bringing together farmers, vets and breed societies from around the UK to provide health information for farmers along with the cost implications.

First on the agenda for the winter months are Bovine viral diarrhoea and Johne’s disease, to be communicated via a weekly Twitter campaign.

Come spring, members will be organising roadshows on tackling liver fluke.

Charlie Maclaren, a sustainable agriculture analyst from Dumfries and NBA board member, has been appointed to chair the new committee.

He said: “The Animal Health Committee is all about meeting a need for clear, understandable information that farmers simply don’t have access to at the moment.

“We are using routes such as social media to get this out to people an easily-understandable, digestible form. It is important that farmers know how to spot diseases and parasites in their cattle and what these are likely to do to their bottom line.”